The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  The Sultana seemed in very good humour and talked to me with the utmost civility. I did not omit this opportunity of learning all that I possibly could of the seraglio, which is so entirely unknown amongst us. She assured me that the story of the Sultan’s throwing a handkerchief is altogether fabulous and the manner upon that occasion no other but that he send the Kuslir Aga to signify to the lady the honour he intends her. She is immediately complimented upon it by the others and led to the bath where she is perfumed and dressed in the most magnificent and becoming manner. The Emperor precedes his visit by a royal present and then comes into her apartment. Neither is there any such thing as her creeping in at the bed’s feet. She said that the first he make choice of was always after the first in rank and not the mother of the eldest son, as other writers would make us believe. Sometimes the Sultan diverts himself in the company of all his ladies, who stand in a circle round him, and she confessed that they were ready to die with jealousy and envy of the happy she that he distinguished by any appearance of preference. But this seemed to be neither better nor worse than the circles in most courts where the glance of the monarch is watched and every smile waited for with impatience and envied by those that cannot obtain it.

  She never mentioned the Sultan without tears in her eyes, yet she seemed very fond of the discourse. “My past happiness (said she) appears a dream to me, yet I cannot forget that I was beloved by the greatest and most lovely of mankind. I was chose from all the rest to make all his campaigns with him. I would not survive him if I was not passionately fond of the princess, my daughter, yet all my tenderness for her was hardly enough to make me preserve my life when I lost him. I passed a whole twelvemonth without seeing the light. Time has softened my despair, yet I now pass some days every week in tears devoted to the memory of my Sultan.” There was no affectation in these words. It was easy to see she was in a deep melancholy, though her good humour made her willing to divert me.

  She asked me to walk in her garden, and one of her slaves immediately brought her a pelisse of rich brocade lined with sables. I waited on her into the garden, which had nothing in it remarkable but the fountains, and from thence she showed me all her apartments. In her bedchamber her toilet was displayed, consisting of two looking glasses, the frames covered with pearls, and her night talpak set with bodkins of jewels, and near it three vests of fine sables, every one of which is at least worth 1000 dollars, £200 English money. I don’t doubt these rich habits were purposely placed in sight, but they seemed negligently thrown on the sofa. When I took my leave of her I was complimented with perfumes as at the Grand Vizier’s and presented with a very fine embroidered handkerchief. Her slaves were to the number of thirty, besides ten little ones, the eldest not above seven year old. These were the most beautiful girls I ever saw, all richly dressed, and I observed that the Sultana took a great deal of pleasure in these lovely children, which is a vast expense, for there is not a handsome girl of that age to be bought under £100 sterling. They wore little garlands of flowers, and their own hair braided, which was all their headdress, but their habits all of gold stuffs. These served her coffee kneeling, brought water when she washed, etc. ‘Tis a great part of the business of the older slaves to take care of these girls, to learn them to embroider and serve them as carefully as if they were children of the family.

  Now do I fancy that you imagine I have entertained you all this while with a relation that has, at least, received many embellishments from my hand. This is but too like, says you, the Arabian tales; these embroidered napkins, and a jewel as large as a turkey’s egg! You forget, dear sister, those very tales were writ by an author of this country and, excepting the enchantments, are a real representation of the manners here. We travelers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us we are dull and we have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic, not allowing for the difference of ranks, which afford difference of company, more curiosity, or the changes of customs that happen every twenty year in every country. But people judge of travelers exactly with the same candour, good nature and impartiality they judge of their neighbours upon all occasions. For my part, if I live to return amongst you I am so well acquainted with the morals of all my dear friends and acquaintance that I am resolved to tell them nothing at all, to avoid the imputation, which their charity would certainly incline them to, of my telling too much. But I depend upon your knowing me enough to believe whatever I seriously assert for truth, though I give you leave to be surprised at an account so new to you. But what would you say if I told you that I have been in a harem where the winter apartment was wainscoted with inlaid work of mother of pearl, ivory of different colours and olive wood, exactly like the little boxes you have seen brought out of this country; and those rooms designed for summer, the walls all crusted with japan china, the roofs gilt and the floors spread with the finest Persian carpets. Yet there is nothing more true, such is the palace of my lovely friend, the fair Fatima, who I was acquainted with at Adrianople. I went to visit her yesterday and, if possible, she appeared to me handsomer than before. She met me at the door of her chamber and, giving me her hand with the best grace in the world: “You Christian ladies,” said she with a smile that made her as handsome as an angel, “have the reputation of inconstancy, and I did not expect, whatever goodness you expressed for me at Adrianople, that I should ever see you again, but I am now convinced that I have really the happiness of pleasing you, and if you knew how I speak of you amongst our ladies you would be assured that you do me justice if you think me your friend.” She placed me in the corner of the sofa and I spent the afternoon in her conversation with the greatest pleasure in the world.

  The Sultana Hafise is what one would naturally expect to find a Turkish lady, willing to oblige, but not knowing how to go about it, and ‘tis easy to see in her manner that she has lived excluded from the world. But Fatima has all the politeness and good breeding of a court, with an air that inspires at once respect and tenderness; and now I understand her language I find her wit as engaging as her beauty. She is very curious after the manner s of other countries and has not that partiality for her own so common to little minds. A Greek that I carried with me who had never seen her before (nor could have been admitted now if she had not been in my train) showed that surprise at her beauty and manner which is unavoidable at the first sight, and said to me in Italian: “This is no Turkish lady; she is certainly some Christian.” Fatima guessed she spoke of her and asked what she said. I would not have told, thinking she would have been no better pleased with the compliment than one of our court beauties to be told she had the air of a Turk. But the Greek lady told it her and she smiled, saying: “It is not the first time I have heard so. My mother was a Poloneze taken at the Siege of Camieniec, and my father used to rally me, saying he believed his Christian wife had found some Christian gallant, for I had not the air of a Turkish girl.” I assured her that if all the Turkish ladies were like her, it was absolutely necessary to confine them from public view for the repose of mankind, and proceeded to tell her what a noise such a face as hers would make in London or Paris. “I can’t believe you,” replied she agreeably; “if beauty was so much valued in your country as you say they would never have suffered you to leave it.”

  Perhaps, dear sister, you laugh at my vanity in repeating this compliment, but I only do it as I think it very well turned and give it you as an instance of the spirit of her conversation. Her house was magnificently furnished and very well fancied, her winter rooms being furnished with figured velvet on gold grounds, and those for summer with fine Indian quilting embroidered with gold. The houses of the great Turkish ladies are kept clean with as much nicety as those in Holland. This was situated in a high part of the town, and from the windows of her summer apartment we had the prospect of the sea and the islands and the Asian mountains. My letter is insensibly grown so long, I am ashamed of it. This is a very bad symptom. ‘Tis well if I don’t d
egenerate into a downright story teller. It may be our proverb that knowledge is no burden may be true to oneself, but knowing too much is very apt to make us troublesome to other people. (pp. 113–20)

  Source: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The Turkish Embassy Letters, annotated and edited by Malcolm Jack (London: Virago Press, 1994), 57–60, 70–72, 109–112, 113–120. Pickering & Chatto. Reproduced by permission of Routledge, a division of Taylor and Francis Group.

  7. OTTOMAN TERMS OF PEACE ACCEPTED BY RUSSIA AT PRUTH (JULY 10/21, 1711)

  The Ottoman sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) tried to reorganize the Ottoman army and keep the empire out of war. Despite his best efforts, however, the Ottomans were pulled into European power politics and eventually open warfare, first with Russia and then with the Habsburgs. The drive to convince the Ottoman Empire to confront the Habsburgs and Russia came from France, which needed an ally in the battle against the Habsburg emperor. The Swedish monarch, Charles XII, also sought allies in his confrontation with Peter the Great of Russia. In addition, the khan of Crimea, Devlet Giray, was anxious to mobilize the Ottoman forces behind his efforts to resist Russian incursion into the northern Black Sea region. Initially the Ottomans resisted the temptation to confront the Russian and Habsburg threat. The memory of the humiliating Treaty of Karlowitz (January 26, 1699) was still fresh in the minds of many Ottoman officials, who wished to avoid another military debacle. The Ottoman refusal to form an alliance with Sweden, however, emboldened the Russians, who defeated Charles XII at Poltava in the summer of 1709. Following his defeat, the Swedish king sought refuge at the Ottoman court and was joined by the Cossack leader Mazeppa, who also fled into the sultan’s territory.

  The partisans of war against Russia, supported by the Swedish king and the Crimean khan, triumphed. Peter the Great used the presence of the Swedish monarch at the Ottoman court as a convenient justification to mobilize his army. He also received support from the princes of the two Romanian-populated principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, who ruled as vassals of the Ottoman monarch. As the news reached Istanbul of Peter’s military plans, hostilities became unavoidable, and the Ottoman government declared war on Russia in December 1710.

  Fortunately for the Ottomans, the Habsburgs did not provide any support to Peter. Having recognized the threat from an aggressive Russia, the Tatars and Cossacks came together with the goal of coordinating their raids against Peter’s army. With his rear threatened and the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia reneging on their promise to provide support for his troops, Peter, who had crossed the Pruth into Moldavia in July 1711, was forced to retreat. As the Russian army was about to cross the Pruth on its return journey, however, the Ottoman forces struck and surrounded Peter and his troops. The founder of modern Russia and his army were at the mercy of the Ottoman grand vizier, who could have annihilated them in one blow. Recognizing the severity of his situation, Peter promised to surrender his cannons, return the Ottoman-held territories he had occupied, and remove the forts he had built along the frontier with the Ottoman Empire. In return, the Ottomans allowed Russian merchants to trade freely in their territory and agreed to mediate a peace treaty between Russia and Sweden. One of the most important implications of the Russo-Ottoman war was the change in the political structure of the Principalities. The secret negotiations between the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia and the Russian government convinced the sultan that he should remove the native princes and have governors appointed directly by the Porte. The new governors were selected from the Greek Phanariote families of Istanbul, who had played an important role within the Ottoman state as the dragomans of the sultan. The document below contains the articles of the peace treaty signed between the Ottoman Empire and Russia after Peter’s defeat in July 1711.

  Since it has pleased God, the Sovereign Master of the Universe, to allow by His wise providence and His infinite mercy the victorious armies of the believers to encircle the Tsar of Russia and all his troops on the banks of the Pruth [River], where they have been so defeated that his Tsarist Majesty has been forced to seek peace and to sue for it publicly, this is the real reason which caused us to write these presents, the conditions of which are expressed as follows:

  ART. 1. The fortress of Azov shall be returned to the Ottoman Empire in the state in which it was when captured with all its dependent lands and jurisdictions.

  ART. 2. The three fortresses of Tychan [Tsaritsyn?], Kamenny Zaton and the new one [Taganrog] shall be demolished. The cannon of the last-mentioned fort with all its ammunition shall be surrendered to the Empire. The rebuilding of forts in the three places mentioned shall never be allowed.

  ART. 3. The Tsar shall refrain from molesting in any manner in the future the Barrabas and Potkali Cossacks, subjects of Poland, and those dependent on the very powerful Han Devlet Girey, Prince of the Crimea. The said Tsar shall let them enjoy their places of habitation, as always defined in the past.

  ART. 4. In the future, with the exception of merchants who travel, the Tsar shall have no one in residence at Constantinople on his behalf with the rank of Ambassador or Minister.

  ART. 5. All Turks who have been taken prisoner or enslaved, whatever their number, shall be freed, and returned to the Sublime Porte.

  ART. 6. Since the King of Sweden has placed himself under the favorable protection of the Sublime Porte, no hindrance shall henceforth be caused him. When he may want to return to his states, he shall not be caused anxiety en route. Similarly, if he cannot [return], peace shall be concluded between the parties, once agreement can be reached on the conditions.

  ART. 7. The Sublime Porte for its part and the Russians for theirs shall promise that the inhabitants, subjects or other persons who may be under their protection shall nowhere be molested or caused anxiety. It is stipulated, however, that the Most Serene, Very High, and Very Clement Emperor, our very Clement Lord and Master will be supplicated to forget the irregular behavior of the Tsar and, at God’s good pleasure, to ratify at Constantinople the treaty of alliance, a copy of which will be delivered to the Tsar, since he undertook on this basis to accept the obligation, approved in accordance with our full powers. The above articles will be executed after [the Sublime Porte] has received the hostages and four written engagements from the said Tsar who will be permitted to withdraw to his states, without fear of trouble from the Tatars or other troops. As soon as the above conditions are implemented and the capitulation made and accepted, the Sublime Porte will allow Baron Peter Shafirov, chancellor and secret counselor of the Tsar, and Major-General Michel Borisovich Shermetev to return to their country without delay, after they have fulfilled the obligations for which they remained with our victorious army as hostages of the Tsar. To this end the present article has been inserted.

  Source: J. C. Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East: A Documentary Record, 1535–1914 (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1956), 1:39–40. Translated from the French text in Edward Hertslet, Treaties between Turkey and Foreign Powers 1535–1855 (London, 1855), 434–435. Reprinted with permission.

  8. A EUROPEAN ACCOUNT OF THE OTTOMAN-RUSSIAN WAR OF 1768–1774

  By the 1760s Russia had replaced the Habsburgs as the principal threat to Ottoman rule in the Crimea and the Balkans. The conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Russia began after Catherine the Great embarked on a campaign to establish Russian rule over the Black Sea, the Crimea, and Poland. She used the death of the Polish king August III to install her former lover, Stanislaw Poniatowski, as the new ruler. The Polish nobles, who opposed Russian and Prussian intervention, organized an uprising and appealed for support from the sultan. Fully aware of the Russian designs on their territory, the Crimean Tatars echoed the Polish plea for assistance. After Russian forces, which were pursuing Polish rebels, crossed the Ottoman frontier and burned a village, the Ottomans demanded that Russia withdraw its forces from Poland. When the demand was rejected, the Ottoman Empire, with strong encouragement from France and the Crimean Tatars, declared war on Russia o
n October 8, 1768.

  The Russian armies attacked Ottoman positions on several fronts. They first targeted Moldavia, destroying Ottoman defenses on the Danube and then pushing into Wallachia in September 1769. The native elite, who resented the Greek governors ruling on behalf of the sultan, joined the Russians and called on the populace to rise in support of the invading army. When the Ottomans finally managed to organize a counteroffensive, their army was destroyed by the Russians on August 1, 1770, at Kagul (Danube Delta). The Romanian-populated principalities had been lost, and the Russian army was poised to invade Bulgaria and even Istanbul. A second front for the Russian invasion was the Caucasus. The occupation of Georgia allowed Russia to enter Ottoman territory from the northeast, forcing the sultan to divide his army and engage in a much wider conflict.

  The most successful front for the Russians, however, proved to be the Crimea. Encouraging division and infighting among the Tatar leadership and in the absence of the Tatar army, which was fighting with the Ottomans in the Principalities, Russia pushed deep into the Crimea and installed its puppet as the new khan of an autonomous Tatar state under Russian protection in the summer of 1771. Many Tatars and their leaders who resented and opposed Russian occupation fled to the Ottoman territory, dreaming of a day when they could return and reclaim their homeland.